In 1878 the then 14-year-old Richard Strauss climbed the Heimgarten in Bavaria with a number of other mountaineers. During this trip the group was overcome by a thunderstorm, forcing them to hide in a farmer's hut. Immediately the next day, the young Richard tried to improvise these impressions on the piano. However, of his intention to compose a triptych with nature as its subject, only that part
… was realized that would relate to the Alps. In 1900 he made a few sketches, but it was not until 1911 that he started to work seriously on what would eventually result in "Eine Alpensinfonie". The work depicts 24 hours in the Alps, from sunrise to sunset. The enormous orchestral apparatus includes a number of wind machines that suggestive how the wind blows during "more
